Unemployment drops below 7%
Some fantastic news, well unless you are a labour supporter.
What are the odds that we will have under 6% by time of next years general election?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27046681
What are the odds that we will have under 6% by time of next years general election?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27046681
The number of people out of work in the UK has fallen by 77,000 to a five year low of 2.24m in the three months to February, official figures have shown.
The unemployment rate now stands at 6.9% of the adult working population, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Average earnings in the three months to February grew 1.7% compared with a year earlier.
It comes as inflation was recorded to have fallen to 1.6% in March.
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It's fantastic news for everyone. Though the BBC article does point out that the rate of growth in average earnings includes bonuses, and if you removed them from the numbers then earnings growth was only 1.4% - i.e. still below inflation. So you can imply from that that (on average) those on non bonus salaries have seen their living standards fall again.
I disagree that today's decent economic performance makes up for 3.5 years of non performance, but we've had the same debate too many times now . . . .
It was always going to take a long time for us to recover the pre-recession position following the recession. This however is another pillar of Eds lines of attack fall away - not only is unemployment lower than when the coalition came to power, but now average earnings are growing faster than inflation (and it will not be long before this includes non-bonus earnings.
People want personal things, i.e. a job that pays well and gives them some personal satisfaction. Holidays, a home they own, a nice car, nice food, good health... All that stuff, how are the coalition doing there?
If what this government is doing was what the general public are into then it would be the Conservatives with a 6point lead.
The number of those not in full-time paid employment has fallen by 77,000.
Or are they using a different definition of employment?
This tends to push down everyone's wages of course.
The idea that the public would cheer this is bizarre. Cheer austerity, cheer a decline in living standards, cheer a decline in job security?...
What sort of person thinks this is good news for the man/woman on the street? You would have to be seriously out-of-touch.
Seriously out-of-touch politicians don't get re-elected.
It includes part time, zero hours and those who have registered with HMRC as self employed.
In terms of the public/private balance, it includes where former public sector jobs have been outsourced.
There policy was never to raise them when it got under 7%. It was an indicator that they might change, which they wont.
No that's not the plan. The plan is to consider a rate change when the rate falls below 7%.
Source: What Carney said in a recent interview.
The policy was not to raise them when unemployment went below 7% but not to consider it until it does. As it is the inflation figures mean that there is no great pressure to raise them just yet.
Why would "a Labour supporter" not think that more people in work was a good thing?
although it would be interesting to see a breakdown of how many of these jobs are:
outside London and the south east,
permanent full time jobs,
part-time jobs,
temporary jobs,
NMW wage low paid jobs (in which the majority of workers still depend heavily on in-work benefits)
Zero hours contract jobs,
Self employment jobs,
Also there are many people who see the slow improvement in the statistics as being despite this government and not because of them,
It's quite evident in the almost static opinion polls that the public as a whole aren't seeing or feeling this 'improvement' that the Tories are so desperate to convince us is real.
Given how I made my money, I'm never going to suggest that going it alone is a bad idea, but I know with absolute certainty, having seen it happen, that unemployed are being directed to start up their own business - window cleaning being a popular suggestion- with the promise that tax credits will deal with any shortfall in income should they struggle.
My worry here is that not everyone is suited to running a business, and if as I fear it's seen as a way to show progress it is really just kicking the can down the road.
Straight up to 4% should do for starters, although I'd prefer to see it set at least to 5%.
Trouble is you'd end up with more cleaners than windows.
Zero chance of that happening. There would be carnage in the mortgage markets. Or, maybe that's what you'd like to see happen.
All opinion polls show a narrowing of the gap between Labour and Conservatives. All polls are showing the public are growing more confident with the economy. All polls show Cameron/Osborne as being more peoples choice than Miliband/Balls.
Sort of blows what you're saying out of the water.
Have you got a mortgage?
A rise from 0.5% to 4% is not only never going to happen - it would be crazy, just on inflationary grounds (just wait until you see what that does to what you pay on a mortgage) - it will go up slowly but given the inflation figures - this is not going to happen soon - with inflation going down there is no evidence of over-heating in the economy. Now should inflation go up - then we might see it.
Bet you they don't but if the Tories win the next election - unlikely - interest rates will go up immediately.
No.
It's time savers were rewarded.